Recommerce market to reach €120 billion by 2025

The selling of pre-owned items is growing in popularity. In 2021, the European recommerce market was worth 75 billion euros. It is expected to grow 60 percent by 2025, to 120 billion euros.

Many online marketplaces have added services where customers can sell their pre-owned items, such as Zalando. However, there are also a growing amount of marketplaces where consumers sell previously owned items to buyers who reuse, refurbish, recycle or resell them. This is called recommerce. Lithuanian marketplace Vinted is an example of such a c2c recommerce marketplace.

Recommerce market share to reach 14%

According to a study carried out by Cross-Border Commerce Europe, recommerce marketplaces are growing 20 times faster than the overall retail market. Up to 2025, the recommerce market is expected to grow its market share from 10 to 14 percent.

93% of consumers say inflation impacts their decision to buy pre-owned.

The growth of these marketplaces is accelerated by inflation. “At least 93 percent of consumers say inflation impacts their decision to buy and sell pre-owned goods with an increasing emphasis on making and saving money”, the study says.

eBay largest recommerce marketplace

Overall, eBay is the largest recommerce marketplace, as the sale of second-hand, refurbished and repurposed items has been a large part of that marketplace for a long time. When looking at specific categories, the study shows that consumer electronics have a market share of 11 percent in the recommerce total market. Additionally, the study found out that nearly half of all online car trade is recommerce.

Fashion recommerce will be worth €37 billion in 2025.

Fashion recommerce was valued at 20 billion euros in 2021 and this is expected to reach 37 billion euros in 2025. Its market share was 14.5 percent in 2021, and this is expected to grow up to 21 percent by 2025. Vinted is the biggest European player in this industry,  with a community of over 65 million members. It is followed by Rubylane and Vestiaire Collective.